In China, Sina Weibo and WeChat are two most popular platforms. Sina Weibo has evolved around desktop use while WeChat only works with mobile. I have already those platforms in much more details in this blog. For now, suffice it to say that, for the purpose of market research, Weibo is much more suitable and this is what I will be focusing on.

Using Chinese Social Media Channels for market research

First of all, searching for something like “sunglasses” on Weibo is unlikely to be a very useful exercise – most results would probably quite irrelevant returning mostly some news or pictures of people wearing sunglasses.

While searching Chinese social media channels, it is much better to make a more focused searches such for specific brand names of competitors for example.

In any case, when it comes to searches for social mentions Weibo is fairly similar to Twitter with the difference that instead of preceding a term with #, it should be enclosed with # like this: #太阳眼镜#.

One useful aspect of a search for a broad term is finding out who is advertising with that keyword. Here is the screenshot of a sample search results with the ads shown on the right panel:

The best way to use social media search is to find out about the competition and how they are using this channel. For example, let’s search for one of the famous brands for sunglasses – Oakley (the brand name searches don’t require #):

The first result would usually be the official brand account followed by news and social mentions which also can be quite useful.
While browsing competitors accounts it is a good idea to note how many followers they have, how frequent they post and whether they receive engagement on their tweets.

In the above example, Oakley’s account reveals a fairly active channel with over 80K followers and 5.5K tweets (as of November 2015). The company seems to be engaging in promotions via sponsored sports events and many tweets feature new designs and product launches:

In summary, social media searches on Weibo are best for researching competitors and their ways of using this highly effective marketing channel. It can help you to figure out how much emphasis on social media your marketing campaign should include and what you should be tweeting about to keep your targeted audience engaged.

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The latest China cybersecurity law have had broad implications to technology companies operating in the Mainland. It also covers wide range of areas which were not explicitly defined up until the enactment of the law.

In this post, we are going to summarize most important points of the law, specifically those having the broadest implications.

5 Most Important Takeaways from China cybersecurity law

#1: Real name requirements

The law makes sure that user’s anonymity online will no longer be tolerated – every messaging service and social network operating in China is now required to verify users’ identity. Only real names must be used and user’s personal information must be verified by providers who are required to deny service to anyone who refuses to comply.

Many Chinese internet companies have already been gradually implementing these requirements before the law took effect. After it has become official,  some retroactive action also affected existing users who haven’t been properly verified. Failure to pass verification now typically results in account suspension.

#2: Data localization

Article 31 of the new China cybersecurity law requires that citizens’ personal information must be stored within China borders. In addition to personal data, the regulation loosely defines “other important data gathered and produced during operations” which must also be stored on local servers. This clause is applied to “critical information infrastructure operators” which, in effect, means any network provider with large user database.

This requirement has already affected companies that presently have to move users’ data overseas for processing. Such companies are not be able to continue doing this without applying for a government’s permission. Some foreign tech companies such as Apple, were forced to store their user data locally which already caused backlash from some users.

#3: Prohibited content

Network operators are officially required to censor content and remove any prohibited material. The law states that “any person and organization shall, when using the network, abide by the the Constitution and laws, observe public order and respect social morality”.

It further expands to what is considered illegal content to be circulated online: “activities harming national security, propagating of terrorism and extremism, inciting ethnic hatred and ethnic discrimination, dissemination of obscene and sexual information, slandering or defame others, upsetting social order, harming the public interest, infringing of other persons’ intellectual property or other lawful rights and interests”

#4: Technology “backdoors”

The “cybersecurity” part in China cybersecurity law was further expanded by including requirement to submit to security reviews by authorities. Article 23 stipulates that “for the needs of national security and criminal investigation, investigating organs may request network operators provide necessary technological support and assistance in accordance with laws and regulations.”

This part has already been causing concerns to foreign technology companies as the requirement could also mean providing encryption backdoors or other surveillance assistance to the government. Fortunately, the requirement of source code disclosure in earlier draft version was removed amid protests from US and other countries.

#5: Critical information infrastructure sectors

The law further defines so called “critical information infrastructure” industries that includes telecommunications, energy, transportation, information services, finance, public services, military and government networks as well as “networks and systems owned or managed by network service providers with massive numbers of users”.

Those sectors are specifically singled out for additional checks and measures for establishing security safeguards enacted by the State Council.

#6: Legal responsibility

Chapter IV of China cybersecurity law prescribes punishments and penalties for violators. The fines range from RMB 10,000 to 1 million and can be applied to both organizations and individuals.

Repeated violations will result in temporary or permanent service suspensions, revoking business licenses, freezing assets and criminal responsibility.

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Most recently, Weibo has introduced the set of new rules on what KOLs can and can’t do on their platform. Some of those rules are designed to fight completion, others to maximize the ad revenue.

ParkLU, a digital advertising platform that connects China’s internet celebrities and brands, recently released a list of rules that are currently being enforced on Weibo.

Here are the new Weibo KOL posting rules:

Link blocking to all e-commerce sites except Alibaba properties

In light of fierce competition within BAT (Baidu-Alibaba-Tencent) this rule makes a lot of sense and is hardly a surprise. Since Alibaba is the largest shareholder of Sina Weibo, they want to make sure to benefit as much as possible their own ecommerce platforms such as Taobao and Tmall.

KOL accounts need to seek permission before promoting more than one brand in a single post

This new Weibo KOL rule is most likely aimed at improving quality of the posts. Promoting multiple brands in a single post typically benefits KOLs themselves (since they can charge more), however the marketing message gets diluted which probably isn’t what a brand is paying for.

All posts with external links will receive a 20% media exposure penalty

Clearly, Weibo would like to keep as much traffic as possible within the platform. For example, posts linking to other Weibo posts or pages would get better ranking vs. those linking to pages outside the platform.

Posts containing plagiarized content will receive a 50% page weight penalty

This new Weibo rule still doesn’t go as far as the equivalent one for WeChat where such posts are most likely to be taken down completely. Of course, in some cases, proving who copied whom can also be tricky.

Posts containing long form images will receive a 50% page weight penalty

According to ParkLU CMO Elijah Whaley, this rule is rather confusing. Such images have been quite popular with users and it is not immediately clear why Weibo doesn’t like them anymore.

Accounts that only repost will receive a page weight penalty

This rule once again is designed to improve the posts quality and encourage creating original content by KOLs rather than recycling and reposting content already existing elsewhere.

Post containing a QR code will receive a page weight penalty

The penalty for QR code is clearly targeting Weibo’s largest competitor WeChat. It isn’t anything new though – Weibo wasn’t allowing posting WeChat QR codes for a while now.

Posts that mention WeChat will receive max page weight penalty, limited to 10% total visibility

Here is another shot against WeChat. In fact, WeChat has been blocking all the links to Alibaba ecommerce stores (Taobao or Tmall) for years now, so it is only fair that Weibo would reciprocate.

Accounts that mention marketing, sales or advertising businesses could receive a page weight penalty

With this new Weibo KOL rule, the platform is trying to avoid promoting competition that may take some of Weibo’s advertising revenues. Posts should be focusing on promoting brands, products and services rather than potential Weibo’s competitors.

Lucky draw campaigns must use Weibo’s official lucky draw function or receive a page weight penalty

Since lucky draws are quite popular in Chinese social media, Weibo prefers to use their own tools rather than third party service for this type of campaigns. This way, the traffic stays in Weibo rather than goes elsewhere.

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In fact, every QQ user is also a Qzone member making this platform the biggest in China by the number of subscribers. Unfortunately, despite being an enormous network, Tencent hasn’t been able to capitalize on QQ and Qzone marketing. The main sources of network’s revenue are games, sales of digital items and paid membership. Also, arguably, they are in the process of being cannibalized by WeChat, a more innovative service from Tencent.

For advertisers, QQ offers banner placement in the app as well as pop ups but those are quite expensive and, nowadays, largely considered ineffective. The social media outlet connected to QQ messenger, Qzone is divided into different functions. It includes homepage, status, blog, background music, albums, personal information, shared documents, friend visits, friend show, video show, and games. It also allows a high degree of profile customization and connectivity to 3rd party applications. Its overall profile design approach is more similar to MySpace rather than Facebook.

Qzone marketing basically come in 2 varieties: sponsored posts in the user feed and banner ads. After series of page redesigns over the past few years, banners now show up on either left or right side from the feed.

Currently, Qzone for mobile doesn’t show any ads and the stress is made on integrating it with QQ messenger while enhancing user experience by adding more options to the core messaging function.

Other methods of Qzone marketing include posting directly in the relevant group discussions as well as commenting. Obviously, this requires maintaining an active presence on the network and making sure that the profile is updated frequently. Luckily, some 3rd party solutions offer cross posting on a number of different platforms, unfortunately, except the most popular – WeChat.

Since Qzone is mostly used by younger audience with limited spending potential it makes it less suitable for promoting large number of categories of products and services. Also, compared to other networks like Sina Weibo, it is more popular in 3rd and 4th tier cities. On the other hand, it still could be an effective route to reach a particular segment such as current or prospective students for example. Companies in educational space, foreign universities looking to attract new students, sellers of hot items popular with teenagers – all can find Qzone marketing an interesting channel to explore.

In the past, Qzone was the venue of choice for a number successful marketing campaigns like XiaoMi, a maker of popular cellphones, or Oreo cookies. Large number of celebrities still maintain active presence on the network, although it is unlikely to be their exclusive channel.

QQ messenger is often used as a direct communication option such as for customer or tech support. This is why it is often included in websites along with other communication options.

In addition, QQ messenger allows creation of groups (limited to 200 members for basic users and up to 1000 for VIP paid accounts) that can also be leveraged as an effective marketing channel. This feature allows for similar users can be grouped together and engaged all at once.

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First interesting fact is that approximately 9 out of 10 China’s online users have a social media account.

Qzone remains the largest social media platform and QQ the most popular messenger. No platform, however, can challenge WeChat‘s dominance in mobile. 

Although, Weibo has some luster, it is still a very effective advertising platform as it has the ability to target users much more accurately than other services.

Chinese social media marketing is even more important when is comes to ecommerce. As the infographic shows, Chinese are very active online shoppers, spending a lot of time researching products online and commenting on the experience. 75% of online shoppers would provide feedback at least once a month as opposed to only 25% of US users.

Finally, 77% of Chinese expect a brand to have a social media presence – a clear sign to marketers that it is one of channels in the marketing strategy mix that can’t be ignored.

Here is the full infographic:

Chinese Social Media Marketing for Business

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Another monster, Qzone, is still the largest network in terms of registered users, although it is largely considered of limited value to marketers.

The main demographic group of social media users are those between 26 and 30, they account for almost one third of all the users.

Astonishingly, social media penetration in China is estimated to be at around 91% of the total online population vs. 67% for US. At the same time, each Chinese social media user is following on average 8 brands.

Another figure that underscores the importance of marketing on social media in China is the fact that 43% of Chinese netizens are interested in products shared by their friends on social networks. In addition, 38% of them base their shopping decisions on recommendations from friends online.

Here is the full infographic from Go-Globe.com:

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WeChat is truly an innovative platform and in terms of features it is way ahead of other equivalent services, like Viber, Line, WhatsApp etc. The main competitor of WeChat in the social media space has always been Sina Weibo, recently, however, it seems that more and more users are abandoning Weibo for WeChat. Although not necessarily mutually exclusive, it’s just so much social media one can manage, and, naturally, people still tend to favor one platform over the other.

So, what is WeChat’s competitive advantage over Weibo, what gives it an edge? Here are the 8 main reasons:

#1 Mobility

WeChat was designed for smart phones from the beginning, everything from functionality to user controls was made sure to fit for mobile use. Weibo, on the other hand, started with the desktop version and later adapted the application for mobile. As a result, the user experience still lags behind the native mobile WeChat app.

#2 Twitter-like speed

WeChat allows users to share photos and status updates on the timeline, called Moments. Similar to Facebook, the updates are immediately shared with friends in real time, they can comment on them or share them further. If you want to spread the message quickly, nothing beats WeChat’s speed.

#3 QR code advantage

WeChat was quick to adapt QR codes, the scanning capabilities are built in from the earliest versions and once scanned, the code can be further processed without leaving the app. QR codes are practically everywhere in China with many of them are designed to be used within WeChat app itself.  Little WeChat logo in the center of a QR code indicates that the scanning action will result in something WeChat-related.

Traditional name cards exchange is often replaced by QR scan to get the other person’s details adding further to WeChat’s popularity.

#4 Ecosystem of useful add-ons

WeChat is becoming more than a chat app but the entire ecosystem of related functionality that can be used within it. Without leaving WeChat, you now can pay for some services, call a cab or even make purchases.  WeChat has proven to be a superior marketing platform for business: merchants can advertise their products and send coupons by messaging directly to their subscribers. In addition, WeChat’d integrated service accounts enable real functionality to their users through interfaces within the app itself. Read more about this WeChat functionality.

#5 Mobile finance

Somewhat similar to Apple’s passbook, users can already  store their membership cards and movie tickets within the app. With the rise of decentralized consumer finance, WeChat is well positioned to become an indispensable e-wallet of the new internet generation. It is already  possible to pay for certain services, buy investments and even borrow small loans, all from within the app.

#6 Leveraging QQ network

Tencent owns the largest Chinese messaging platform called QQ. While QQ use still remains primarily desktop based, users now can merge their contact with WeChat and even “cross talk” using two platforms simultaneously. With 800 million QQ subscribers, WeChat has received a huge head start in acquiring user base. Tencent is clearly sacrificing QQ in favor of its new product but the truth is that QQ has long outlived its purpose, just like ICQ did before.

 #7 State censorship factor

Until recently, Weibo was the main platform for people getting unbiased news and independent opinion which was not necessarily according to the official line. Over the last couple of years, however, state censorship has been tightening its grip. Measures included requiring that accounts be registered under real names, and that those posting “rumors” be suspended. Some reports suggest that the the number of microblog users, which includes Sina Weibo and similar services, dropped by over 27.8 million last year. Many of those users went to WeChat further strengthening its base.

#8 Global appeal

WeChat is clearly positioning itself for global expansion, although with the recent WhatsApp acquisition by Facebook, it seems to be getting more challenging. Nevertheless, with 100 million overseas users already, WeChat is becoming a household name outside its home base, further broadening it’s appeal. People are getting increasingly more connected across the globe and they realize that one of the best ways to keep in touch with Chinese friends and business partners is via WeChat.

Weibo, on the hand, is almost completely unknown outside of China, it even failed to attract too many users in Taiwan and overseas Chinese communities. WeChat with its 17 languages to choose from has gotten the upper hand over Weibo when it comes to connecting globally.

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Some of the traditional strategies and approaches to online marketing which are typical to the West have to be adjusted  in order to stay effective in China. Chinese social media users do differ for Western ones in a number of important ways.

With the number of China’s internet users today being roughly double of the entire US population, knowing and taking  those factors into account in your marketing campaign becomes increasingly important.

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Below is a quick run down of the big four.

Sina Weibo

By far the largest social media platform, Sina Weibo, claims user base of 22% of the entire China’s population.  It is owned by SINA Corporation and has been online since 2009. Often compared to Twitter, it currently has twice as many subscribers and is more flexible in terms of what type of media can be shared. Part of its appeal is the ability to share photos and videos, something that Twitter didn’t allow until very recently.

With Twitter being blocked in China, Weibo provided an alternative to individuals and companies looking to spread their message quickly and efficiently which is what micro-blogging is all about after all.

Weibo also implements strict censorship rules resulting in messages containing any blacklisted words being blocked automatically. Link shortening is also not allowed. Overall, as long as you stay out of politics (as you should), Sina Weibo is one of the most efficient marketing channels a brand can employ in China.

Tancent Weibo

The alternative micro-blogging platform, Tancent Weibo, is similar to Sina Weibo in almost every way. It was initially launched by Tancent, the company behind QQ messenger, as a way to curb the competition. It still claims over 200 million subscribers and takes advantage of its huge user base with QQ and QZone.

Tancent Weibo is certainly the service to watch as its user base is well positioned to grow further. Many celebrities use this platform including Ma Huateng, Zhou Hongyi, and Liu Xiang Jet Li.

 WeChat

One of the fastest growing social media services, WeChat is designed exclusively for mobile users. WeChat app is available for every mobile platform that makes it the communication tool of choice of millions of users in Chinese speaking world.

WeChat provides multimedia communication with text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, photo/video sharing, location sharing, and contact information exchange. WeChat supports social networking via shared streaming content feeds and location-based social plug-ins.

Currently, this is the only fully functional multilingual Chinese social media service which helps to broaden its appeal to non-Chinese speakers as well as international companies. In fact, it is perhaps the most used app of an average Chinese phone today, which means that marketing via WeChat opens an attractive possibility of reaching your customers almost anywhere.

RenRen

RenRen is, in effect, the Facebook of China. With the actual Facebook still being blocked, it’s the place where users share photos, events, videos etc.

From functional and structural point of view, RenRen is very similar to Facebook and also uses open platform  allowing third parties to integrate with it by rendering modifications and adding functionalities. The APIs listed are quite similar with those Facebook provided, and some of RenRen’s developers are developing based on the SDK of Facebook.

RenRen is most popular among college and university students and back in 2011 claimed about 30 million active users. It seems that the appeal of RenRen is somewhat behind more mobile oriented services but it still likely to remain a major player in Chinese social media market landscape.

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Regardless of how one might feel about the whole issue of internet freedom, companies that are looking to use any of those marketing channels for their Chinese market are forced to make adjustments to their advertising strategy and mitigate the effects of restricted access by using alternative solutions.

Here is the short list of the currently blocked services (as of mid-2013), the implications of the restricted access and the suggested workarounds.

Video Hosting services

Both Youtube and Vimeo.com have been blocked since 2009. If your site contains any videos hosted on one of those services, they will appear as broken links to your Chinese visitors. Any of the instructional videos, advertisement clips etc. will not be accessible without VPN and, of course, you can’t be counting that your customers will be using VPN service to access your site, most of them will simply move on.

Current solution – hosting the clips on Youku.com, Chinese equivalent of Youtube that is accessible worldwide. Unfortunately, Youku.com is entirely in Chinese, so you’d need a Chinese speaking person to help set it up. The idea, however is the same as with Youtube – you upload your video and copy the link to your site. Of course, the real fool-proof solution would be to host your clips on your website whenever possible instead of using external service.

Sharing documents

Google Docs, Google Drive, Dropbox are periodically blocked with Dropbox appearing to to be permanently inaccessible. Box.net, another popular service, is presently open but it has been blocked in the past. On the bright side, desktop applications for Box.net or Dropbox seem to be still syncing your files with the cloud just fine.

At the moment, I’d recommend to stick with Box.net.

Blogging

Most of the most popular blogging platforms, WordPress, Blogspot and Blogger, have been permanently restricted, so any blogs published through these services will not be accessible to your Chinese audience. Typepad still seems to be kicking, another testament of its growing irrelevance.

Solution – self hosting your blogs using WordPress or any other CMS within your existing website or as another site dedicated only to blogging. You can still incorporate your blog posts into your corporate site via RSS as long as they are not posted on WordPress.com.

Social Media

Besides Facebook and Twitter, other major social media sites that are restricted include Google+ and MySpace. Although, most companies continue maintaining their presence on those site to improve search ranking (especially true for Google+), it is important to keep in mind that the large number of Chinese still use Facebook quite frequently via VPN. While very little reliable user statistics on Facebook users in China is available, it is most likely used by fairly sophisticated and Western minded Chinese netizens.

Twitter is by far less relevant for the purpose of marketing in China and has been almost entirely replaced by Sina Weibo and WeChat (Weixin). If Twitter is essential for company’s marketing, Weibo and WeChat should definitely fit the bill.

Other sites

Wikipedia is restricted selectively, articles deemed to be too sensitive are not accessible, not surprisingly the Wikipedia entries about the issue of blocked internet access in China are blocked too.

Bloomberg has been banned a couple of years ago after publishing some article hinting on the widespread corruption. It means that if your site has a live RSS feed or a plugin streaming information from Bloomberg.com – it will not display anything when accessed from Chinese address.

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